Governing Office365 as an objective
Can information and process governance be improved without the traditional pain and angst of implementing or replacing an EDRMS? Objective Corporation believes it can, with a new set of offerings for users of Office 365, known as INFORM and PERFORM.
Built in partnership with Microsoft and optimised for Microsoft Azure, INFORM and PERFORM are designed to work with existing information repositories, such as HPE Content Manager (HP TRIM) and Microsoft SharePoint, to add value to records-in-place.
INFORM provides for surfacing and management of enterprise content within applications such as MS Word and Outlook, removing the need to leave your working environment of choice to interact with an ECM.
Objective PERFORM is a separate but integrated platform for initiating digital workflows and process governance.
Proven Objective technology is still at the heart of these new platforms, although they can function with HPE Content Manager, SharePoint or Office 365 as the underpinning repository.
Objective CEO Tony Walls explains the new offerings are meant to counter the traditional perception that well-managed digital workflows and process governance can only be implemented following a disruptive enterprise-wide deployment of a single ECM.
“We respect the fact that many organisations already have an information governance solution of some sort, whether it be Objective or a different platform. What we are doing is taking the business processes that are document-centric in an organisation, and creating value through the digital transformation and automation of specific business processes.
“INFORM and PERFORM can actually deliver a short, sharp business improvement that doesn’t require a year’s effort and necessarily hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Objective now provides preconfigured workflows for INFORM and PERFORM based on its long heritage in delivering Content Management solutions for all levels of government. Specific processes include Ministerials, Freedom of Information and correspondence management as well as the more generic HR staff onboarding for federal government and development applications and asset management in local government.
“We are really a domain specialist with specialist capabilities. We are not focussed on being a technology tool platform for everyone. We are specialists in information and process governance and in solutions that involve process governance for what has historically been the public sector”.
“That has since broadened to include other vertical markets which are being increasinglyregulated by the government,” said Walls.
“As a company we are growing away from the term ECM to some extent, as we are really an information and process governance solution specialist.
“With INFORM and PERFORM we are aiming to provide more cost-effective solutions to customers and provide value proof points, where they might do multiple projects with us over a longer period of time, rather than saying “Hey, you need to do this large, big bang approach”.
Tony Walls believes that while there is a massive continuing ongoing opportunity for digital transformation at all levels of government in Australia, there’s not a lot of appetite for rip and replace of existing document management solutions.
INFORM and PERFORM are designed to leverage the investment that government agencies and government regulated industries have already made in information management, so they can better meet governance obligations in the most efficient way.
Michael Gration, Public Sector Director, Microsoft Australia, said, “Objective’s strong reputation in the public sector make it the ideal partner to bring together productivity benefits and cloud resilience through the delivery of a new suite of solutions for our local and state government customers.”